After each game, we typically highlight three defensive and three offensive players and look in detail at their performance. We’ll start today with the defense:
Say you Will be there
One player who has seen speculation about his status ahead of next week’s trade deadline is Will McDonald, although it’s not clear whether there is anything to that.
Some analysts have suggested that he’s not viewed as a three-down player and that he’s been coming out of the game in run defense situations on the assumption that he’s viewed as a weakness in the trenches, despite the promise of having bulked up during the offseason.
This actually isn’t true, though. He has been playing less – although part of that is probably because he had to play more than planned last season due to Jermaine Johnson missing the entire season and Haason Reddick being a lemon – but his percentage of run snaps has actually increased from 36 percent to 40 percent.
The overall reduction in playing time, even with Johnson again missing a few games, perhaps could indicate he’s not viewed as essential to their system and might not be considered a fit to be a cornerstone piece. However, at this stage of his career it may be too early to make that assertion. The idea that he might only be worth a mid-round pick because he’s viewed around the league as a situational pass rusher doesn’t hold up, anyway.
On Sunday, the Jets were awful against the run, but most of the damage was done on runs up the middle. McDonald himself once again showed that when tested as a run defender, he’s perfectly competent and can hold his own in this area even if not making a major impact.
Here’s a nice play from him. Taking on the pulling blocker with physicality to ensure the run is going to be forced out wide, then hustling across to make a nice hit.
McDonald’s reputation perhaps helped the Jets here, as the Bengals decided to run right at him to try and get some cheap yardage as they tried to get in range for a game-winning field goal at the end. As usual, he held up fine in the trenches and the run went nowhere.
Where he has had negatives in the running game, these have tended to be in space, including some missed tackles. Although he gets sealed off on the edge from time to time, this isn’t particularly often compared to other defensive ends.
Perhaps the bigger concern is his drop-off in pressure and sacks. Having been in double-digits last year, he’s well behind that pace. Part of this is attributable to him getting fewer pass rush attempts though. In addition, the Jets have faced a string of teams who have been overmatched on the line so have schemed up ways of mitigating pressure with quick passes, moving pockets etc.
He showed a good motor, hustle and closing speed to rack up his third sack of the season but his first since the opener.
In person, McDonald’s disruptiveness is impressive and he’s a handful whenever he’s in the game. Jarvis Brownlee, completely unprompted, was raving about his athletic ability in London too, despite only having been with the team for a few weeks, so he’s obviously impressive to his teammates.
What is clear is that McDonald is capable of more. One of the bigger challenges for the coaching staff in the second half will be to unlock that potential a bit better.
Thomas the Tank Engine
With Sauce Gardner out and rookie Azareye’h Thomas starting in his place, it seemed inevitable the Jets would lose again with Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to contend with. However, it didn’t work out that way, as Aaron Glenn operated a gameplan which he admitted was geared towards stopping those two.
Chase’s quality was on display in the second quarter. Thomas was slightly out of phase and slow to respond to Chase’s route-break and Joe Flacco’s pass was well-timed for a 17-yard gain.
Two plays later was the play where Thomas allowed Higgins to get a step on him for a deep touchdown. Yes, Malachi Moore misread this and probably should have dropped deep to be there in support but still Thomas was fooled by Higgins’ stop-go route and let him get a step which he couldn’t recover from.
Thomas didn’t let that screw up his whole day, though, as he allowed just seven yards on three other targets and held up superbly when Flacco tested him deep again late in the third.
He ended the game with five tackles, none of which were close to the line of scrimmage, and had a few missteps against the run, including on Samaje Perine’s long touchdown run, but the overall performance has to have built confidence in him for the staff.
If Gardner returns after the bye, it might be difficult to find much playing time for Thomas, although moving Deuce Carter could be a step in the right direction. Thomas is a young player showing promise so they should try and get him involved as much as they can.
Quincy what I mean?
Quincy Williams made his return and was flying around everywhere making plays in the first quarter while Kiko Mauigoa made the start for a curiously benched Jamien Sherwood. He had three tackles and two pass breakups on the opening drive alone and then did this on the first play of the Bengals’ third possession.
Bizarrely, once Sherwood got back into the lineup, Williams’ impact seemed to disappear. He had just two more tackles over the last three quarters, on an 11-yard run and a four-yard pass.
Williams also had some negatives over the rest of the game, with a couple of missed tackles and six catches for 73 yards and a touchdown given up in coverage.
The most egregious play here was Chase Brown’s touchdown catch which Williams almost broke up over the middle, but then let Brown slip away from him after making the catch as he barged through both safeties to get to the goal line.
That was a similar play to the two breakups he had earlier in the game, both of which saw him at full-stretch as he tried to disrupt the pass.
It was clearly good to have Williams back but he and Sherwood don’t yet appear to be on the same page, or even close to that. It took a long time for Mosley and Williams to get on the same page, and for Sherwood to fully get to grip with the old scheme, so we can’t necessarily give up on them figuring it out. With Williams out of contract after the season, though, that probably needs to happen sooner rather than later.
Three-on-O will follow tomorrow.